Of Rainbows and Starry Skies
by ariadne-chan
Summary: All he could really give her was his heart, but then it had already been hers.' A series of oneshots of the Kazehaya/Kuronuma persuasion. 'They're both full-color portraits, paintings come to life, and she is his in all her rainbow-shaded glory.'
1. Chapter 1

_give me something to believe in,_  
_a breath from the breathing_  
_it's just that at night i've got nowhere to hide_  
_so i write you a lullaby_

_---  
_

Kuronuma Sawako was quite simply amazing. Kazehaya Shouta had been of this opinion for years, but he was constantly finding it proven again and again. He still wondered, sometimes, how the girl could have been unfairly misunderstood by the people around her. She was amazing--being with her and hearing everything she has to say had always made him feel that the best is yet to come. Her innocence and good nature never failed to make him feel awed and humbled and jealous all at the same time. He remembered how, despite everything that had come her way, she still had been able to give and to understand; to smile that brilliant smile regardless of the circumstances, even willing to sacrifice for the people who meant a great deal to her. And he wondered, sometimes, how she could have so much faith in him after all she had seen. How she had seen his selfishness; wanting her eyes and her smile all to himself, wanting her attention to be his--only his, sometimes disregarding the feelings of other people around him. She had seen him at his worst--had been constantly on the verge of giving up, acting impishly at the pretense of misunderstanding, inevitably running away. And yet he had been truly touched by her unwavering support even after that--he honestly couldn't offer her much in return. All Shouta could really give her was his heart, but then again, it had already been hers.

---

**the song is entitled hammer and strings, as performed by jack's mannequin. ah, i really hope the mangaka resumes kimi ni todoke soon. i can hardly stand the wait. o_O. ***waves hello to the corda readers who happened to have read this. see you guys next time. ^-^


	2. Chapter 2

_my heart is yours to fill or burst_  
_to break or bury_  
_or wear as jewelery_  
_which ever you prefer._

_---  
_

She has beautiful eyes, lighted by her spirit, colored by her essence.

They're a warm, chocolate brown, like the cocoa his mother used to make on snow days when he was small. And he has discovered through close, yet inconspicuous, observation, that when the Hokkaido sunlight angles just right, you can see flecks of gold dust swirled in her gaze.

Her eyes are simultaneously lovely, honest, and haunted.

They are clear as crystal, vivid as stained glass, and all-telling.

When she smiles, whether at one of Chizu's zany stories or one of his own seemingly funny remarks, her eyes come alive with a dazzling sparkle of joy. Sometimes, he cannot help but shake his head in a fond sort of manner when he sees her eyes light up as she finishes planting seeds on the school flower bed--her own private galaxy. People can't really comprehend her love of medicinal herbs she had innocently labeled diarrhea and cholera and more, but somehow, when he sees her ethereal smile, he can understand so much.

When she's puzzled or frustrated, with him, a subject, or life in general, there will be a quirky mix of innocent curiosity and flickering fireworks captured in her stare. He cannot quite explain what makes it so or why, but there is something different with the way she smiles after every accomplished task--after every job well done. Whether it was after a particularly pleasant soccer practice with Chizu, after a stroll in the countryside with him and Maru-chan, whether it was during those times she waves goodbye to her friends after an afternoon at the park or after helping her classmates out with her infamous 'Sadako's Good Luck Notes'--there is _just _something different with her smile. For when Kuronuma Sawako smiles, she does so with her heart.

And when she knows something that he doesn't know, whether a detail about another subject, a surprise she has for him, or the knowledge that Pin plays the guitar in a jazz band in a little bar every Wednesday night, her eyes are illuminated by an innocent albeit taunting flame of mystery.

When she's afraid or hurting, her eyes become grey and hollow, despite her best efforts to hide the pain.

When she's angry, one look at the fire dancing in her hard stare, and you'll well know it.

When she's lying, she does whatever she can to avoid direct eye contact with the person she's pouring out an untruth too, because all it takes is one look, and someone who knows her well, can see right through her charade.

Yes, he has always thought that she has beautiful eyes.

And while, admittedly, her eyes may not have been the first thing he noticed about the girl who had always been called Sadako, he certainly took notice of them soon afterwards.

And he has been hypnotized by them ever since.

---

**edited after re-reading the manga earlier this afternoon. i've always fancied kazahaya going out with kuronuma. they're going to make such a sweet couple, i think. ^-^ **song's hands down by dashboard confessionals.


	3. Chapter 3

_i never had the courage to finally make that call._  
_ i've been missing you so much,_  
_ have you been missing me at all?_

_---  
_

Perhaps it would be best if she continued to watch and admire from afar. She didn't think she could take the rejection; she had too much of that in life. Slowly, though, Sawako was changing. Becoming bold, though in the smallest manners, but it was a step up and she grew more through the time she had spent with her new friends. One day, though, after the tiring soccer practice with Chizu-chan, she happened to pass by Kazehaya-kun looking particularly lonely. She remembered hearing him argue with Pin-sensei earlier in the afternoon and seeing him alone and dejected under the large Kuromatsu tree made her courage surge. She made tentative steps towards him, took a deep breath, and with--

"Will you come to lunch with me, Kazehaya-kun?"

She asked her crush to lunch.

His head whipped up and brilliant brown eyes met hers. Sawako held her breath, prepared herself for the negative response, and then his eyes lit up in understanding and his face broke into a shy smile.

"Sure, Kuronu--Sawako."

You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.

---

**i've decided to discontinue the prompt-based approach. my mind moves in Insanely Mysterious Ways, and that's why i've had enough with prompts (for now, at least). **next drabble's probably chizuxryuu centered, and i hope you don't mind if i squeeze in a little bit of miniskirt-love. hehehe. ja ne!^-^

**...oops. song's entitled 'never had the courage' it's a chase coy song. so there.  
**


	4. Chapter 4

_thought you should know, i've tried my best to let go of you_  
_but i don't want to_  
_i just gotta say it all before i go_  
_just so you know_

_---  
_

He often found himself wondering to himself.

Kind of redundant, but yeah. How could he _love_ someone so shallow?

Though as much as he tried to reinforce it in his mind, no matter how much he drilled all her bad (or highly unfeminine) qualities into his head over and over again like a third-grader would with his time-tables--no matter how much he tried, nothing changed.

He was stuck with the notion, the audacity, really, to believe that she was more than the loud-mouthed, vain, temperamental if emotional, irrational, especially gluttony, sometimes egotistical girl she always was. And somehow he was glued to the belief that it was all a facade, that there was something more than skin-deep in the chocolate-haired girl.

Perhaps he felt it at times, when she just finished saying something uncharacteristically nice, or wise. He could kind of remember how it looked like. That little glint, or shine in the corner of her eyes, that made him feel like he could lose himself in her eyes forever.

Something deep, something about her, made him feel that there was so much more than her than she let on.

When she met the odd-girl Sawako, though, and together with Yano-san stuck with her through thick and thin, Ryuu had been sure.

Maybe it was those small sighs she let out, when she stared at the setting sun after a long day of supposed 'studying' and goofing around. He finds it hard to imagine what could _possibly_ be there in that contented, unsightly burp, when she had finally settled down his bed and rubbed her stomach in circular motions with that stupid, dreamy smile on her face after scarfing down a second helping of his father's special ramen--it was _truly_ hard to imagine what could possibly be there that draws her to him. Something unnaturally kind, gentle and honest about those little sighs. And he felt himself fall in love with her all over again.

He could fool himself into believing that maybe it was the fact that maybe, _maybe_--he had just gotten so used to seeing her around for years that he had mistaken his feelings for--for _love._ But she turns and grabs the PS2 unceremoniously from his hands and he feels stupid butterflies on his stomach--_oh no._ It's just all too complicated for him to explain, really.

But despite all the confusion and instability, he was sure of one thing. She was blind.

Kind of hard to believe? Those shiny, bright, dark eyes he loved so much were blind. No, not literally, of course, but metaphorically blind. Blind to love, to emotion, to feeling_--his_ feelings.

He felt they were rather obvious, for had he been a by-stander observing their interactions, he definitely would have felt some sort of attraction on his part. However, she seemed to be oblivious.

At first, he felt she was blinded by her childhood love for his older brother. Tooru. The infuriatingly cool twerp. Cool as in, what he was not. Slick, dark-horsed knight, the whole suuuaaavveee thing. Sigh.

But then, once his awesome-personified brother showed up on New Year's with his girlfriend whose name for the love of all things holy he still couldn't remember, Chii's love seemed to wane, and then fade away. And soon, it was like she never fancied the light-haired man to begin with.

However, she was still blind.

Logic forced him to abandon that hypothesis, but he was unable to find another reason, and eventually he forced himself to give it up as 'god's will'.

Sanada Ryuu stared pensively at the baseball bag she had given him as a gift, the one she had practically slammed on his face in her fitful anger, and sighed. Baseball freak. He'd always be there for her, just in case.

---

**spotlight: jesse mccartney's just so you know. song has heavily inspired moi while writing this chapter. ^-^ **ahh, i can't get enough of ryuu. he's plain adorable. don't you think?** ^-^ next chapter would primarily be back to back kazehayaxkuronuma. stay tuned! ^-^  
**


	5. Chapter 5

_turn the lights off in this place_  
_and she shines just like a star_  
_turn the music up in here_  
_i still hear her loud and clear..._

_---  
_

Sanada Ryuu had never been a creative person. He was always straightforward and rarely thought things through. Many times when he should have listened to his father, and knew that the old man was right, he still did things his own way. That was just the way he was.

She wasn't quite the same--she was straightforward and rarely thought things through, but she knew when she was receiving wise advice and usually heeded to it. She was creative with her soccer-playing, and the way she moved seemed like a dance and the vicious kicks she produced for some unfathomable reason he found awe striking.

One would never imagine that Chizu could be graceful in any way--it was not traditional graceful, it was so very _Chizuru._ There was something about her that made you want to watch her for hours and that was what Ryuu did. He pretended to be relaxing on the grassy hill just a little ways from her, and because he knew she couldn't see him, he watched her with no discretion.

He wondered if she could dance, and then concluded that she most likely could. Perhaps one day he would ask her to dance. He chuckled at the thought, imagining his childhood friend dressed up and dancing like a proper lady. It would never happen; if it did it was surely a sign of the apocalypse. He heard footsteps beside him, and looked up towards the girl of his thoughts. She was looking down upon him with a questioning expression, before sitting down.

"What's so funny?"

Ryuu mentally debated whether or not to tell her his thoughts--more than likely she would be offended and it would result in a fight. He usually enjoyed fighting with Chizu because it afforded him more time with her, although usually she pushed him to his limit or the other way around--but somehow, he did not feel like arguing today.

"Nothing," he replied, shaking his head slightly.

She gave him a look that told him she didn't believe him, but she said nothing and laid back into the grass with her arms crossed behind her head. Ryuu followed the action and stared up at the bright, blue sky. A comfortable silence fell upon them as they simply enjoyed each other's company. After a few moments, he heard gentle snoring beside him and turned his head towards the sleeping girl. A small smile quirked his lips and he too closed his eyes and soon fell asleep under the warmth of the sun.

---

**okay, okay, i'm sorry, i lied. can't get my mind off of this pairing. too adorable. sigh. :3 **song's closer by neyo.**  
**


	6. Chapter 6

_go ahead and say it_  
_even though you know it makes me uncomfortable_  
_go ahead and say it_  
_if you must make me blush_

---

Spring, to many, is a time of rebirth. It is the season of rekindled hope. It is the season of new beginnings. Plants and flowers reemerge and give back to the ground the beauty it once held before the chills of winter covered it with desolate silence. Yes, indeed, spring is man's privilege; the window of time given by some divine higher being in which beauty unfolds before the eye so simply, so wonderfully.

He has never believed in love at first sight. Logically, it just doesn't make sense--attraction, surely, can occur in that first glance, because humans have no control over hormones. But love...Kazehaya Shouta is still unsure whether he believes that it exists at all, so to say that it can suddenly appear out of nowhere seems ludicrous.

Except that eight months ago, he was knocked on his feet by a feeling that he hasn't ever found a better way to describe.

He first saw her one day in early spring, her head bowed down as the breeze played with the ends of her hair, lifting it like the leaves on the trees. Whether it was fate or mere coincidence, Kazehaya didn't know. He can still remember, and clearly, the moment when she had raised her head, and the chocolate eyes that shone with the light of a thousand stars betrayed the rest of her seemingly solitary appearance, for they were filled with an ethereal happiness and appreciation as she stared at the blooming cherry trees. Two awkward introductions and several walks and outings set by friends later, it became apparent to the both of them that along with the flowers spring brought, something else was coming to life. It was unexplainable, but at the same time undeniable. The exchanges between them evolved from overly formal and strange to more relaxed and—could it be—carefree. Frivolous conversations turned into heartfelt confessions. Slowly but surely, the sound of her laughter became permanent in his mind. The way her eyes twinkled when she smiled became etched into his heart.

It was strange for a guy who had not been looking for, or even anticipating love, to go so much out of his way for the happiness of another—to want to give up anything and everything for the sake of one person. Often, he asked himself, silently, begrudgingly, if his efforts were worth it, and if she even returned these feelings that were breaking him down.

He could well recall the time during their homeroom period when her fingers drummed incessantly on her notepad as she shifted back and forth in her seat. He wondered whether she had already come up with a convincing ghost story to perform or decided on what sort of seed to plant on that garden patch of hers, and just then she turned her head to his general direction and her eyes met his. It was her eyes that Kazehaya was unable to tear himself away from--wide and dark, with an intensity he was not expecting. He was affording her so much attention, in fact, that he stumbled over the introduction of a book he was assigned to read aloud. Pin had scoffed and laughed at him mercilessly, and a blush rose to his cheeks, unbidden.

Kuronuma Sawako had smiled then, though whether at him, or to no one in particular, he can't be sure. But then again, Kazehaya Shouta's heart had done cartwheels inside his chest.

If the evidence changes, so must the theory.

---

**blush, aly and aj.** next chapter's pinxayane, hopefully. i'm working on the drafts.


	7. Chapter 7

**i might say i haven't quite expressed the sentiment in the, er, relationship. but anyway, here goes nothing.**

It was a rare moment.

Yano Ayane sat next to him in the quiet sunshine, watching him sleep and wishing he would stay that way for a while yet. Stupid Pin was so irritatingly deafening when he was awake that it was hard to see through the noise to him. It was like a sound barrier he put up to distract people from looking at the real person underneath it.

Ayane wasn't fooled, but it was still annoying. _The obnoxious prat._

She liked him better this way, summer-warm and gently silent.

**wait, _what?_**


	8. Chapter 8

**something crazy i came up with while i was reading the morning newspaper. ah, the source of inspiration these days. **weirdness.**  
**

Nuance

It was hard to pick up on sometimes, Chizuru thought, munching on her curry bread, watching them bickering like undomesticated cats and dogs, but there was definitely _something_ going on between Pin and Ayane; she'd stake her last yen on it.


	9. Chapter 9

_it's not all the same_  
_it's never the same_  
_if you don't feel it too_

Sadly, she had just realized the Truth. Staring at remarkably dirty baseball gloves—what a romantic notion. But despite the fact that they were friends—_only friends_—that though it had been a _friendship_ she had adored and treasured, it was all about to end. Just like that, thank you very much. And this wasn't because of your average normal reasons. Oh no. It was _love._ Not the garish flashy love at first sight, though. She liked to think of it as the kind of love that came on tiptoeing feet, a love that softly crept through corridors, a love that went beyond childish squabbles and skinned knees—a love that quietly brought a kiss to her dreams. And now she knew that life wouldn't be the same ever again—because this was the end of friendship, and life was changing, for better or for worse. Because, she, oh God, she was in _love!_

"Chizu."

"R-Ryuu? W-What are you d-doing here? Don't scare me like that!"

"I brought you your favorite ramen. Do you want me to stay with you?"

"W-what?"

"So you won't be all alone. We're friends after all."

Damn.

**watched the trailer for the live action kimi ni todoke film earlier for what seemed like the hundred seventeenth time. ugh. ****chizuryuu all the way. :3 sorry this had to be so random. hehehe.  
**


End file.
